the respondents, their size and their loan to deposit ratios were sufficiently
representative to provide useful and accurate information.
 Each bank was sent a questionnaire that had been examined, criticized
 and pretested by the author's colleagues and by four local bankers. It
 had received limited publicity through the Florida Banker's Association.
 A cover letter mentioning Florida Banker's Association support and a letter
 stating the importance of the survey accompanied each questionnaire. The
 author's name and telephone number were included for any possible queries
 (there were 11). Anonymity was guaranteed. A stamped addressed return
 envelope was enclosed. Finally it was thought that the four page question-
 naire required about ten minutes to complete.
 Research funds were insufficient for follow-up reminders so 26 telephone
contacts were made to non respondents. In 25 of these cases the bank was
less than six months old, and the survey had been sent to the parent bank,
for responses. Thus, the survey covered a larger proportion of banks than
the number of responses indicates.
 The results were analyzed at the end of the summer of 1978 and a
summary sent to the 74 respondents requesting it.
 The following results highlight the main features from each part of
the survey, and use the actual questions and layout of the survey.


 PART I
 The Individual Bank and Local Agriculture


Question 1. How important is farming in your bank's area compared with
 other businesses, in terms of gross sales?

 Number of banks responding Percent of banks responding
 in each category (#) in each category (%)

The major
activity 15 6
Very important 53 23
Fairly important 52 22
Not important 113 49
No answer* 47
 100


 *Questionnaire was returned, but this question was not answered.